Mexico: One Plate at a Time

Mexico one plate at a time season 1

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26 episodes · First aired 2003-01-10

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Showing 6 at a time

S1 E2125 min

Beyond Chips & Salsa

There’s nothing like crispy, warm, homemade tortilla chips, fresh from the fryer. But for those with “fear of frying,” Rick demonstrates his favorite way to make fresh tortilla chips in the oven. Fresh-made chips deserve fresh-made salsa, in this case, a Salsa Molcajete with the zingy flavors of chipotle chiles, roasted garlic and roasted tomatillos, hand-pounded in a traditional lava-rock mortar (molcajete) that Rick picks out in a Mexican market stall. Next it’s a quick way to turn leftover tortilla chips into a satisfying comfort-food dinner: Stovetop Chipotle Chilaquiles–chips simmered with Mexican greens in a tomato-chipotle sauce. Topped with a little shredded chicken, Mexican crema and onions, it ends up looking and tasting a lot like a rustic pasta dish. Using the same sauce as a base, Rick makes an easy casserole-style Baked Chilaquiles enriched with cream, melted cheese and diced ham, perfect for brunch or dinner.

S1 E2225 min

Holy Mole: Mexico City

Richly complex, shrouded in mystery and misconceptions, Red Mole sauce is widely regarded as the crowning achievement of Mexican cooking and the ultimate mestizo dish–a blend of pre-Columbian and European flavors and techniques that come together in a sauce of remarkable depth and baroque complexity. Its origins are the stuff of myth and magic: convent nuns being visited by midnight visions, enchanted winds blowing through ancient kitchens. It’s a long-simmered sauce perfumed with chiles, nuts, spices and yes, sometimes, though not always, chocolate. No exploration of mole would be complete without a visit to the restaurants, ornately tiled cathedrals and convent kitchens of Puebla, where mole is elevated to the level of a sacred calling. Back in Chicago, Rick takes us into the kitchen and guides us through the intricacies of mole-making, with step-by-step instructions for recreating it at home. There’s a helpful “sidebar” on choosing wines to compliment Mexican food.

S1 E2325 min

Chocolate: The Magic Ingredient

Mexico is the birthplace of chocolate, and to the Aztecs, it was the original food of the gods. Roasted, ground, and brewed as a hot beverage, cacao beans were imbued with divine properties and traded as currency. Today, when Mexicans talks about chocolate, they’re still talking about a hot beverage–it’s seldom seen in confections and candies. In Oaxaca, one of Mexico’s great chocolate producing centers, Rick shows us how the roasted beans are ground to order, then blended with sugar, cinnamon and almonds to the exacting specifications of each customer. In his home kitchen, Rick shows us how to make a contemporary invention of his own, a Mexican Chocolate Streusel Cake, and whips up a batch of Mexican Hot Chocolate. At El Moro, a beloved chocolate and churros eatery, we watch the process of making Churros, the light, crispy “doughnuts” of Mexico, and head back to the kitchen, where Rick shows us how to make them at home.

S1 E2425 min

Green Mole & Pipian: Lessons of the Mayoras

Pipian Verde, sometimes called Green Mole, is one of the glories of Mexican cooking. A tangy, tomatillo-based sauce, thickened with toasted pumpkin seeds, it’s served with everything from chicken to fish and seafood in the most sophisticated restaurants and the most humble market fondas. Rick takes us to Fonda El Refugio, a famous home-style restaurant in Mexico City’s Zona Rosa, where the five courses of the traditional Mexican meal, or comida, serve as the structural framework of the show. When he arrives at the centerpiece of the meal, Pipian de Pollo, Rick takes us back to Chicago and shows us how to make it. Then, it’s back to the kitchen at Fonda El Refugio, to watch it being served up by the very special kitchen staff–dignified older women who have spent their lives cooking and have earned the honorific title “mayora.

S1 E2525 min

Cajeta & Flan: Plaza Sweets

When the Spanish conquered Mexico in the 16th Century, they brought with them all kinds of foods that the pre-Columbian world had never seen. Among those foods was sugar–and actually, the whole idea of sweets. Standing in the kitchen of the Convent of Santa Rosa in Puebla, Rick tells us that it was the Spanish nuns, in convent kitchens just like this one, who introduced Mexico to confection-making as a way to preserve dairy products. They turned out all kinds of sweets based on eggs, milk and sugar, and among their greatest hits was a rich amber goat’s milk caramel called cajeta. Next stop: the Dulceria de Celaya in Mexico city–a century-old sweet shop where traditional, homemade cajeta lives on. Back home in Chicago, Rick walks us through the process of making Cajeta, then takes us back to Mexico for a brief seminar on cinnamon. His rustic Cajeta Apple Tarts with Fruit Salsa are easy to make and a great way to showcase homemade cajeta.

S1 E2625 min

Pozole: The Life of the Party

It’s a big day at Casa Bayless–daughter Lanie’s birthday. And that means big fun and big cooking–literally: a backyard full of friends, a homemade cake and an enormous vat of Pozole, the slow-cooked stew of corn and pork that’s Mexico’s number-one party food. Preparing pozole is an all-day affair. And as the corn and meat simmer, Rick takes us to the ruins of Mitla, where he reveals one of the most ancient and fundamental cooking techniques of Mexico: boiling dried corn in calcium hydroxide to make hominy. Later, a demonstration of the traditional Pastel de Tres Leches, or “Three-Milks Cake” inspires a tongue-in-cheek visit to one of Mexico City’s sweetest and least known treasures, the surreal Cake Showroom of Ideal Bakery. Back home, the fiesta comes to smashing conclusion, with piñatas, a mariachi band, laughter, singing and plenty of pozole for everyone.

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